st go home to
my comrades. Eleanor was awfully disappointed to-day when I told her I
was not going back with them this afternoon."

"I wish you would stay with me longer," pleaded Mrs. Curtis, taking the
girl's firm brown hand in hers and looking down at it gravely, as it
lay in her soft white one. She gazed earnestly at Madge's clear-cut,
expressive face. "Tom and I will be lonely without you," she said. "I
want a daughter dreadfully, and Tom needs a sister. If only you were
my own daughter."

Madge sighed happily. "It has been beautiful to pretend that I was
your real daughter. It has been like the games I used to play when I
was a little girl. I have been lying here in the afternoons, when you
thought I was asleep, making up the nicest 'supposes.' I supposed that
I was your real daughter, that I had been lost and you had found me
after many years. Just at first you did not know me, because time had
made such a change in me. But---- Why, Mrs. Curtis, what is the
matter?" There was wonder and concern in Madge's question. "You don't
mind what I have said, do you? I have been making up things to amuse
myself ever since I was a little girl." She looked anxiously into the
face of the older woman. It was very white, and seemed suddenly to
have become drawn and old.

"My dear child, I love to have you tell me of your little dreams and
fancies," said Mrs. Curtis affectionately, laying her hand on Madge's
head. "What made you think I didn't?"

"You looked as though what I said hurt your feelings," returned Madge,
coloring at her own frankness.

"It was only that something you said brought back a painful memory,"
explained the older woman. "I would prefer not to talk of it. Tell
me, is there nothing I can do to induce you to remain with me a little
longer?"

Her guest shook her head. "Thank you," she replied gratefully, "but I
must go back to my chums. It won't be going away, really, for I will
come to see you as often as you like, and you and Tom and Jack must
visit us on the houseboat. I want you to like the other girls _almost_
as well as you do me," smiled Madge. "Please don't like them quite as
well, though. That doesn't sound very generous, but I should like to
feel that I was first in your heart."

"You shall be, my dear." Mrs. Curtis bent and kissed the young girl's
soft cheek. "And to prove just how much I do care for you I wish to
give you something which I hope you will like and kee